A drive axle of this type is known from U.S. Pat. No. 6,210,299. It consists there of two half-axles made as a tube and inserted in a central tube, with the central tube bearing a ring gear and being supported in a differential case fixedly connected to the vehicle or to a central beam. An input shaft meshing with the ring gear is supported in the differential case. The tube contains two balance gears of a differential, the half-axles are made as output pinion gears at their proximal ends and are clamped together by a threaded pin for their axial fixing. The support of the half-axles in the differential case impairs the driving properties and generates substantial transverse forces between the central tube and the half-axles which a bearing of the half-axles in the central tube would have to absorb, how is not set forth.